The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-09-09
HER BEST.

~ N0 SHN l. ihNH
been employed to superintend the con-
struction of a large saw-mill, and the max
ing of other necessary arrangements for
the manufacture and shipping Of lumber
in the almost limitless pine woods of that
region.
| was already far from railroad commun-
~ication, and il was but twelve miles farther
to the last town on my route; but the
scene Of my labor was several miles beyond
that, and the vehicle in which | found
myself seated was anything but a com
Portable one. The snow drifted in through
the Tapping curtains, as we jolted along,
sometime dangerously near to a %yawning
gulf, or climbing laboriously over an
intervening ridge.
About four o'clock we arrived at the
village, and drew up at the dilapidated
little inn. Without loss of time, | enter
ed the Office, which contained a bar, and in
which a few men were sitting idly around
an old stove, smoking and chatting. A
slatternly woman stood at the window,
picking her teeth with a broom straw, and
staring alternately at the men and at the
sn~ow-covered mountain side.
Are you the new superintendent at the
Campo" asked the landlord, taking my
| coat and valise.
"Yes,' l answered.
"Well, thought SO. You can't do much
lumberin' now, kin you? This is the back
'ardest spring I ever knowcd. The men'll
be down to night if they kin get down,
for they can't do anything for a week now,
anyhow. Is the men acomin', Lucindy?
Lucindy, is the men a comm ?" shouted
the speaker in her ears, for "Lucindy" had
fallen into a fit of staring, and had evident
ly not heard the question; but she now
reused up, and said they were "%a-comin,
over the North Divide"
l looked toward the window from where
l sat and through the top pane could see a
line of dim objects, which | soon discovered
to be men, filing down through the snow on
the mountain-side some distance away. In a
short time they cam struggling into the
village, when 1 learned that most of them
lived in their own homes. while few board
ed at the tavern where | then was, or with
their fellow-workmen.
"Well you're all back alive, are you ?"
said one of the idlers to the first who came
in.
Cali but Holder, lie answered. "He
couldn't come, unless we'd "a carried him,
and we WANT likely to do that, as we had
all we could do to carry ourselves. He's
in pretty bad shape to-day, he is. And if
it SHOWS all night, he can't come in the
morning, neither. Why, there's drifts now
higher'n a mans head. and it all looks
alike up there. You can't follow the path
now. Why, Howells tried to lead comm
down, and he got lost four or five times"
Having delivered himself of this speech,
the speaker placed a chair for himself 20
sit in, but before sitting down he raised
one forefinger toward the crowd, and,
shutting one eye, said:
II tell you, my opinion is he'd better let
it alone. If I couldn't take a little, once in
awhile, and then stop, I'd jist quit square
off. What sense is there in taking it
along, especially by the jugful at a time =?
l don't mind a mans takin' bottle; we
all do that sometimes; but a jug-that's
going it a little too strong. Moderate
drinkin' don't hurt no man. | know it
don't hurt me, and | don't believe it hurts
anybody"
Here the woman at the window turned
and looked at the speaker, sitting there IN
his thin, worn clothes, and hat full of
holes. From him her eye wandered to the
pinched face of a little boy, standing near,
who shoes were thin and about two sizes
too large for him, suggesting that they had
been given to him by somo charitably in
clined person.
She evidently considered that the man
and his child might be better clothed, even
if he was not ''hurt," by what he spent for
drink; but she was the bar-keeper's wife,
and did not give utterance to her thoughts,
whatever they were.
Here the landlord, whose nam was
Roscoe, stopped the rather contrad ictory
statement of the other by saying:
"Mavbe you'd better not talk too much,
Jerry. You didn't know the new super
intendeut was here, did you?"
This silenced him for a moment, while
he looked at me; but he soon began again,
first in a lower tone than before, and then
louder, talking mostly to the others. AT
length, turning to me, he said, in an apol-
ogetic way:
"You see, this man we were talking
about is all right, only he imbibes a little
too much for his own good. He's a good
hand, though, and a good mechanic for all
that"
"Does the company allow the men to
drink while at work." l asked.
"Wall, the boss didn't like it, but as
long as we tended to business, we were all
right; he didn't say nothin'. He did say
once, though, that when the new mill and
new landin' was workin' that he wanted
new ways, or new hands, or somethin' to
| that effect; but we treated that more as a
Joke than anything else. The truth is he
took a little himself, and couldn't say
much" and Jerry laughed at what he con
| sidered a joke on his boss.